Legal Studies Interdisciplinary Minor

Legal Studies Minor Requirements

• Download the Legal Studies Minor Requirements Checklist 

A Legal Studies Minor may be earned by students in any USF major. For the Minor, students must complete five (5) courses (20 credits)(which may be double-counted for major, minor and core requirements), including the Overview course, one course in Domestic Justice, one course in Global Justice, one Field Placement, and one Elective. The elective can be satisfied preferably by choosing an additional course in either Domestic Justice or Global Justice, or by choosing a course from additional electives (see below).

Overview (One of these two are required):

• POLS - 322 Politics of American Justice
• SOC - 354 Sociology of Law

Domestic Justice

• POLS - 316 Law, Politics and the National Pastime (Elias)
• POLS - 323 Lawmaking
• POLS - 327 American Reformers and Revolutionaries (Elias)
• POLS - 335 Political Power and Constitutional Law (Elias)
• POLS - 336 Race, Equality and the Law (Taylor)
• POLS - 337 Women and the Law (Staff)
• POLS - 339 Free Expression and the Constitution
• POLS - 392 American Indian Politics (Kessler-Mata)
• SOC - 227 Violence in Society (Richman)
• SOC - 304 U.S. Inequalities and Social Justice (Raeburn)
• SOC - 357 Criminology (Richman)
• SOC - 367 Environmental Justice
• HIST - 359 The Civil Rights Movement in History and Film (Nasstrom)
• PHIL - 372 Philosophy of Law (Cavanaugh/Vargas)
• MS - 311 Communication Law and Policy (Barker-Plummer)
• BUS - 301 The Legal and Regulatory Environment (Scalise, et al.)

Global Justice

• POLS - 345 Global Economic Justice (Zunes)
• POLS - 350 International Law and Organizations (Zartner)
• POLS - 352 Human Rights and Global Change (Elias)
• POLS - 369 Asian Politics, Activism, and Justice (Gonzalez)
• POLS - 380 Social Justice and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Hahn Tapper)
• POLS - 381 Feminist International Relations (Wibben)
• POLS - 390 Filipino Politics and Justice (Gonzalez)
• SOC - 233 Gender, Development, and Globalization
  
• SOC - 302 Global Inequalities and Social Justice (Santos)
• SOC - 322 Resistance to Corporate Globalization (Santos)
• COMS - 364 Communication for Justice and Social Change (Jacquemet)

Field Placement

Students must choose between a law-related placement in a government agency (Politics 396) or in some non-governmental organization (Politics 397 or Sociology 395)

• POLS - 396 Public Administration Internship (Murphy/Gonzalez/Kessler-Mata), or
• POLS - 397 Fieldwork in Public Interest Organizations (Elias), or
• SOC - 395 Fieldwork in Sociology (Gamson/Rodriguez)

Additional Electives

Students must choose one (1) elective by taking an additional course in either Domestic Justice or Global Justice (see above) or by taking a course from the following list (as periodically updated):

• POLS - 315 Race and Ethnicity in American Politics (Taylor)
• POLS - 323 Legislative Process (Murphy/Cook)
• POLS - 330 Crime, Law, and the Constitution (Lutomski)
• POLS - 363 Housing and Homelessness Policy (Cook)
• POLS - 367 Public Policy: Drug Policy (Murphy)
• POLS - 368 Public Policy: Punishment (Taylor/McBride)
• POLS 392 Race, Civil Rights and American Presidency (Taylor)
• SOC - 325 Critical Approaches to Race and Ethnicity (Raeburn/Shin)
• SOC - 331 Social Stratification (Staff)
• SOC - 355 Deviance and Social Control (Richman)
• SOC - 356 Juvenile (Richman)
• HIST - 322 The Holocaust (Staff)
• HIST - 363 Race and Ethnicity in United States History (Fels)
• HIST - 421 Native Americans in U.S. History: Seminar (Fels)
• PHIL - 370 Philosophy of Action (Cavanaugh)
• MS - 204 Media, Stereotyping, and Violence (Juluri)
• COMS - 322 Public Relations Law and Ethics (Vannice)
• PSYC - 350 Perspectives: Forensic Psychology (Staff)
• ECON - 465 Law and Economics (Staff)
• BUS - 311 Advanced Business Law (Scalise)
• BUS - 313 Employment Law for Managers (Boedecker)
• BUS - 314 Personal Law (Becker)
• BUS - 482 Hospitality Law and Human Resource Issues (Abrams)
• BUS - 491 Honors Section: Legal (Scalise)
  
  

Activities

While primarily an academic program, Legal Studies sponsors or supports various on-campus and off-campus activities and groups, including the Undergraduate Law Society and Phi Alpha Delta. Our speakers series has featured recent talks by Kathy Roberts from the Center of Justice and Accountability; Center for Constitutional Rights President, David Cole; maverick lawyer, Gerry Spence; former San Francisco District Attorney, Terence Hallinan; California Supreme Court Justice and USF Alumnus Ming Chin; consumer law advocate Ralph Nader; various law school deans; and many others. We have a growing relationship with the USF Human Rights Working Group and with USF's School of Law (and its Center for Law and Global Justice). We have a small library of law school materials, and through our Pre-Professional Law Committee, faculty advise students on the legal profession and on legal curricula and admissions. Our recent graduates have gone on to law and graduate schools at universities such as Georgetown, Harvard, Washington, Tulane, Columbia, NYU, Yale, American, USC, and UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, Hastings, and UC Davis.

Under our 4 + 3 Law Program, USF students (in any Major) will have the opportunity to gain automatic admission to USF's School of Law if they have a minimum 3.2 GPA, a minimum 70th percentile LSAT score, and complete either the Legal Studies Minor or the Criminal Justice Studies (see separate brochure) minor.